How to Mix Photo Sizes on Instagram

Tired of your Instagram feed feeling a little too uniform? Mixing different photo sizes is an excellent way to create a more dynamic, engaging, and visually interesting profile, but it comes with one major catch: the dreaded profile grid crop. This guide will walk you through exactly how to mix portrait, landscape, and square photos while keeping your main profile grid looking intentional and beautiful.

Why Your Instagram Grid Looks Off When You Mix Photo Sizes

Before jumping into solutions, you need to understand the root of the problem. Instagram is essentially two different visual experiences mashed into one:

1. The Feed Experience: As users scroll through their main feed, they see your photos in the aspect ratio you uploaded them in. A tall portrait photo will take up more screen real estate, while a landscape photo will be wider.
2. The Profile Grid Experience: When someone visits your profile, Instagram displays all of your posts in a gallery of perfect 1:1 squares. It achieves this by automatically cropping the center of any non-square photo.

This auto-crop is where things go wrong. That beautifully composed 4:5 portrait shot gets its top and bottom chopped off, potentially cutting off someone's head or a key part of your product. That sweeping landscape photo gets its sides sliced away. The result is a profile grid that often looks messy, unintentional, and full of awkward crops.

The secret isn't to stop posting non-square images. It's to post them strategically. But first, a quick refresher on the sizes you're working with.

A Quick Guide to Instagram Aspect Ratios

Think of an aspect ratio as the proportional relationship between an image's width and its height. For the best quality, aim to upload images that are 1080px on the short side.

• Square (1:1): The classic Instagram format. Best resolution is 1080px by 1080px. This is the "safe" format, as what you upload is exactly what appears on your grid.
• Portrait (4:5): The vertical format that takes up the most screen space in the feed. This is fantastic for grabbing attention. Best resolution is 1080px by 1350px.
• Landscape (1.91:1): The horizontal format. Instagram technically supports up to 16:9, but 1.91:1 is more common and less condensed. Best resolution is 1080px by 566px.

Now, let's get into the practical strategies to make all three work together in harmony.

Strategy 1: Master the Center-Focused Composition

This is the most straightforward method. It involves shooting and editing your vertical and horizontal photos with that inevitable 1:1 grid crop firmly in mind. You get the benefit of an attention-grabbing portrait photo in the feed and a well-composed square on your profile grid.

The Core Concept

Imagine a perfect 1:1 square placed directly over the center of your 4:5 portrait or 1.91:1 landscape canvas. That central square is what everyone will see on your grid. Your job is to make sure the main subject - a person's face, a product, the action in a photo - is positioned entirely within that imaginary square.

How to Do It with Portrait (4:5) Photos

When you're editing a portrait photo, the tendency is to crop it tightly. To make it grid-friendly, you need to do the opposite and give your subject some breathing room.

• Check Headroom and Foot Room: When framing a person, leave a bit of extra space above their head and below their feet. If the photo is cropped too close to the top of their head in the 4:5 version, the 1:1 grid crop will cut their head off.
• Center the Product: For product shots, place your item dead center in the vertical frame. It might feel a little basic, but it guarantees the product is the star of the show on both the feed and the grid.
• The "Rule of a Third and a Half": For creators who love the rule of thirds, modify it slightly for vertical Instagram shots. Instead of placing the focal point perfectly on a vertical third line, nudge it a little closer to the center.

How to Do It with Landscape (1.91:1) Photos

Landscape photos get their left and right sides cropped on the grid. The same principle applies: keep the most important stuff in the middle.

• Avoid Edge Placement: If you're shooting a group of people, make sure they are clustered toward the middle of the frame. Anyone standing at the far edges of a landscape shot is guaranteed to be cut out of the grid preview.
• Prioritize a Central Subject: Landscape shots work best on Instagram when there is a clear focal point. A house in the middle of a scenic view, a car on a long road, a person sitting on a distant bench. This central subject will anchor the 1:1 grid crop and keep it looking intentional.

The payoff for this strategy? Your feed remains dynamic and visually engaging with varying photo sizes, while your profile grid looks clean, professional, and thoughtfully composed.

Strategy 2: Use Carousels to Your Advantage

If central composition feels too restrictive for your style, the carousel post is your best friend. This technique gives you complete control over what appears on your grid while allowing you to show off your full vertical or horizontal shots to a curious audience.

The Core Concept

The very first slide of an Instagram carousel determines the aspect ratio for the entire post. It's also the only slide that appears on your profile grid. You can use this to your advantage by making the first slide a perfectly composed 1:1 square, and then putting your full-size portrait or landscape photo as the second slide.

Step-by-Step "Square-First" Carousel Method

1. Choose Your Star Photo: Let's say you have a stunning 4:5 portrait photo that you want to share without it being awkwardly cropped on your grid.
2. Create a 1:1 Crop: In your favorite editing app, create a 1:1 square version of that photo. Take care to compose this crop beautifully - it's what will live on your grid forever. This might be a close-up of the initial shot, or a centered version of it.
3. Assemble the Carousel: When creating your post in Instagram, select the cropped 1:1 square image as your first slide. Then, select the original, full-size 4:5 portrait as your second slide.
4. Write a "Swipe-Worthy" Caption: Encourage people to see the full picture. You can add something simple like "Swipe to see the full shot!" or just let the small arrows guide them.

The payoff for this strategy? You get a pristine, perfectly square grid where nothing is unintentionally cropped. At the same time, users who engage with your post in the feed can swipe to see the image in its original, full-size glory. It's the best of both worlds.

Strategy 3: Add Borders or Fit to Frame

This is an older but still very effective aesthetic choice, particularly if you want to maintain the exact composition of a non-square photo on your grid. The idea is to turn every photo into a 1:1 square before you upload it by adding borders.

The Core Concept

Using a simple editing app, you place your portrait or landscape photo onto a new 1:1 square canvas. The empty space is typically filled with white, black, or a brand color, creating a border around your original image.

How to Easily Add Borders

Many popular photo editing apps make this incredibly simple. Apps like Canva, Snapseed, InShot, or VSCO have features designed for this.

• In Canva, you can start with a 1080x1080 "Instagram Post" template and simply drop your photo into it. You can resize it to fit perfectly, leaving clean borders.
• In an app like Snapseed, use the "Expand" tool to add white or black space around your image until you've created a square.

You can mix and match border strategies:

• For a portrait photo: Place your 4:5 photo onto a 1:1 canvas. This will create borders on the left and right sides.
• For a landscape photo: Place your 1.91:1 photo onto a 1:1 canvas. This will create borders on the top and bottom (a letterbox effect).

The payoff for this strategy? You have absolute control. Your grid shows every photo exactly as is, and it gives your entire profile a clean, minimalist, or gallery-like feel. It consistently works but requires an extra editing step for every post.

Strategy 4: Create Intentional Patterns

For those who love a highly structured and pre-planned feed, leveraging patterns can make mismatched crops look deliberate and artful.

The Core Concept

Instead of hoping for the best, you plan a sequence of posts where different sizes create a pleasing rhythm on your grid. The repetition of the pattern makes it clear that the alternating sizes are a stylistic choice, not a mistake.

Popular Grid Patterns

• Checkerboard: This is a classic. You alternate between two types of posts. For example, a 4:5 portrait shot followed by a 1:1 square text graphic or a product flat lay. Even when the 4:5 photo is cropped on the grid, the back-and-forth pattern looks thoughtful and professional.
• Row by Row: You post three photos of the same aspect ratio in a row. For three posts, share an amazing landscape panorama broken into three square posts. Then for the next row, post three powerful 4:5 portraits. This creates strong thematic blocks in your grid.
• Column Flow: This is harder to maintain but visually stunning. You dedicate one column to a specific type of post. For instance, the middle column is always a 1:1 quote graphic, while the left and right columns are for your 4:5 portraits. As users scroll, they see a clean line running down the center of your profile.

The payoff for this strategy? You create a highly curated, brand-conscious profile that immediately signals professionalism and a strong creative eye. It does, however, require diligence and planning your content well in advance.

Final Thoughts

Mixing photo sizes on Instagram isn't about ignoring the grid, it's about making deliberate choices. By understanding how the 1:1 crop works and using strategies like center-focused composition, carousels, or intentional patterns, you can build a feed that's both dynamic as users scroll and beautifully composed on your main profile page.

All of these strategies are made simpler with a strong habit of visual planning. Before I post anything, I like to get a bird's-eye view of my content schedule to see how different sizes and formats will interact. I use Postbase to see my entire content strategy on a clean visual calendar. Laying everything out lets me spot any potentially awkward grid crops ahead of time and gives me the chance to drag and drop posts to create a more balanced and impactful feed before a single photo goes live.